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User blog:LexsJB/The Evolution of Rainbow Magic
Hey everyone, How are you all doing? I'm fine thanks, you? Well, actually, I'm not exactly fine. Daisy the Festival Fairy came out yesterday and I've been enthusing over it for 4 months but I was sorely disappointed. For those who know me, I love the celebrities of Rainbow Magic but I won't say any more. I'm not saying Daisy is a terrible book, I thought it had an awesome storyline, but there's just this one thing that really got to me. But anyhow, I was thinking today about how much I used to love Rainbow Magic. And after CoolStar posted the pages of Becky the Best Friend Fairy and the Storybook Fairies, I realised "this series is never gonna end". Which isn't a bad thing! Not bad! But it's amazing how long homely childhood memory things can go on for. So to celebrate 4 days, 5 months and 12 years since Ruby was published, I'm going to review all the changes and history of this series. I will also state the obvious and include facts most people know. Please respect my blog post since I've been thinking about it all day and when I got home from school at...let's say 3.30 and it's 6.00 when writing it now, I went straight to planning and researching for this lovely blog post so please, if you want to read it, read it all. If not, that's ok with me. I'll try not to make you fall asleep. Good luck! 'Authors' Everyone old enough knows that Daisy Meadows is a group of authors. From all the books I own electronically and paperly (?) (look on my profile page), I can say that there are at least 9 different authors, Sue Bentley, Linda Chapman, Narinder Dhami, Rachel Elliot, Mandy Archer, Sue Mongredien, Kristen Earhart and Tracey West (they're American authors who usually are included in the American specials as one of the names for 'special thanks' as well as the original British author) and Sarah Levison. From my tally chart, I can say that Narinder has written 18 of my books, Rachel has written 25, Kristen, Linda and Tracey 1, Sarah 2, Sue 8 and Mandy 3. I know that Linda, Sue Bentley and Narinder are some of the original authors, but I don't think Linda and Sue write many more books since the only book by Ms Chapman I own is Summer the Holiday Fairy. 'Cover Design' Cover designs are the most important things for books and especially Rainbow Magic, since many readers enjoy the appearance and names of the fairies. The covers have gone under complete change since Ruby the Red Fairy. It's such a big change. 62078-px310-229695.jpg|link=Ruby the Red Fairy Ava sunset.jpg|link=Ava the Sunset Fairy Jessiecover.jpg|link=Jessie the Lyrics Fairy 9781408327937.jpg|link=Mae the Panda Fairy Elle, Thumbelina Fairy.jpg|link=Elle the Thumbelina Fairy Lisa.jpg|link=Lisa the Jelly Bean Fairy 1. They start off with plain colours and nice fairy dust and stars around the fairy. Here in Ruby the Red Fairy, you can see the background resembles a slightly cloudy blue sky. As the series continues up to the Twilight Fairies, the background resembles something to do with the series. For example, in the Jewel Fairies, the background looks like a shiny piece of jewel or something like that. 2. The colours of the background start to blend a bit with different shades that match the colour scheme. Ava the Sunset Fairy's cover resembles a lovely sunset and this is the first time I think, that the fairy dust is arranged in a special way —a ring. There is also fading as the colour reaches the edges of the books, which shows that the fairies glow like that. Here, you can see that the rainbow on the bottom corner is the same as Ruby's, which is nice because at least they're keeping something original. 3. Now, this is the first time the cover features two easy-to-see colours! In Jessie the Lyrics Fairy's cover, you can see a mix of oranges, yellows and reds with additional white spots of fairy magic. The white glow in the middle is more visible and there are faint stars around the fairy which gives it a nice magical effect (in my primary school we were banned from using the word 'nice'. IN YOUR FACE, YEAR 6!!) 4. Mae the Panda Fairy's cover is the first to feature a faint star shaped (or flower shaped) glow in the middle. There are also many more stars and paw prints , not just surrounding only the fairy but the whole cover. 5. And next, Elle the Thumbelina Fairy. In my opinion, I think it looks much more fuller and occupied than the others. It has way more stars and fairy magic white spots. It does give a more magic feeling though, so this one is a positive point. 6. Finally, Lisa the Jelly Bean Fairy. This is the biggest change ever. The cover has been completely redesigned. It's less busy and sadly the foily stars and fairy dust are no longer sparkly, but just printed onto the cover. It's pretty plain with little colour gradients and blending. The biggest changes are the lack of rainbows. The rainbows in the top left corner and the bottom right have disappeared. This used to literally be the series' trademark but now it's gone. The logo which used to be mirror-like rainbow coloured lettering has been replaced with an actual rainbow and cloud logo. The curly font has gone and been replaced by a more normal one. The side of the book is much different too. For further reading, please read my blog on comparing the older style to the newer style. Please. It's way more detailed than this summary. 'Illustrations' Blog1.jpg|The series begins with simple drawings|link=Fern the Green Fairy Blog2.jpg|Hard clothes starts to kick in|link=Hayley the Rain Fairy Blog3.jpg|link=Phoebe the Fashion Fairy Blog4.jpg|Getting harder...|link=Chloe the Topaz Fairy Blog5.jpg|Details on clothes start to appear|link=Bella the Bunny Fairy Blog6.jpg Blog7.jpg|I think Georgie stopped illustrating the inside illustrations around here. More intricate clothing designs are starting to come|link=Danielle the Daisy Fairy Blog8.jpg|More complicated clothes|link=Bethany the Ballet Fairy Blog9.jpg|I consider this the 2nd evolution. These drawings are in lots of special editions|link=Gemma the Gymnastics Fairy image.jpg|I consider this the 3rd evolution part 1|link=Fiona the Flute Fairy Blog11.5.jpg|More complicated coat designs|link=Sophia the Snow Swan Fairy Blog12.jpg|I consider this the 3rd evolution part 2|link=Isabella the Air Fairy Blog13.jpg| 3rd evolution part 1.|link=Lily the Rainforest Fairy Blog14.jpg|Harder clothing and nice backgrounds|link=Ally The Dolphin Fairy Blog15.jpg|Harder clothing|link=Lexi the Firefly Fairy Blog16.jpg|Harder clothing and more intricate background|link=Alesha the Acrobat Fairy Blog17.jpg|Harder clothing|link=Anya the Cuddly Creatures Fairy Blog18.jpg|Another example of 3rd evolution part 1 (gaah this is getting complicated)|link=Adele the Singing Coach Fairy Blog19.jpg|More complicated clothes|link=Tyra the Dress Designer Fairy Blog20.jpg|More complicated clothes and background|link=Madeleine the Cookie Fairy Blog21.jpg|More complicated clothes and background|link=Mara the Meerkat Fairy Blog22.jpg|More complicated clothes and effects|link=Roxie the Baking Fairy Blog23.jpg|More detail on background|link=Lydia the Reading Fairy Blog24.jpg|I consider this the 4th evaluation where the illustrator draws on the computer|link=Eleanor the Snow White Fairy Blog25.jpg|More evidence for the 4th evolution|link=Luna the Loom Band Fairy Blog26.jpg|As computerised than ever|link=Daisy the Festival Fairy Blog27.jpg|My favourite drawing. It looks like the 2nd evolution but with much more detail and shading.|link=Frances the Royal Family Fairy Please read this for much more detail. These are the things that matter to me dearly. These are the things which are the reason why I loved the series in the first place. These are the things that have gone through the most changes, which isn't bad. I have sifted through all series available to iBooks and my wooden bookshelf and I've picked out 1 image from each series from the beginning of stories which mark the changes of how the illustrations have improved. The series from the Sports Fairies to the School Days Fairies keep switching between Evolution 3 part 1, thicker lines and Rachel's hair is proper, and Evolution 3 part 2, thinner lines and Rachel's hair is three lines. Click on the picture to go to the book where it came from. From the copyright stuff on the front of novelty books, Georgie Ripper stopped doing the front cover fairies at the end of the Sporty series. But according to Hachette, Georgie Ripper has been credited for illustrations on Carrie the Ice Cap Fairy and that's the last she's done. But according to some research I did, she stopped drawing the insides at Flora the Fancy Dress Fairy. This is way too complicated. Nowadays, I suspect many different illustrators take on the challenge of imitating the original drawings. I can tell from the Pop Star Fairy series that they've reused pictures from Destiny the Pop Star Fairy for The Angels and I can tell that because if you look close enough at pictures which look similar to ones from Destiny, you can see the lines which haven't been rubbed out properly from the original but been redrawn. 'Content and language' I don't think the writing has changed that much since Ruby. It's kind of hard to tell, since I've only read the beginning, or not even bothered to read them at all but only look at the picture. There are also many different authors like I mentioned and I've identified a writing style for a few of them. Linda Chapman got to the point and made the fairies more sassy. Sue Mongredien tries to be cool with writing such as "awesome" and "cool" in Jessie the Lyrics Fairy and "cool surprise, huh?" in Vanessa the Dance Steps Fairy. I'm not saying that's strange since we use these words everyday. Sue is trying to bring modern exclamations into a book series that started in 2003 so, yeah. Rachel Elliot writes the most humorous goblin fights and with lots of detail. "'That old lady took my scooter'" writes Rachel in Tamara the Tooth Fairy, referring to a goblin dressed in all of Rachel's wardrobe. "...his voice dripping with honey...'your exquisite blotchy skin fills me with joy...I want to write poems about your perfect hooked nose and adorable huge feet'..." she writes, in Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy, as the villainous, malicious, mean ice king Jack Frost. They may not be, like, Morecambe and Wise standard comedy, but it's funnier than the rest. Narinder Dhami gets to the point. She writes about the important stuff and usually has clever story lines. Mandy Archer is more detailed and I feel kind of feminine and girlish. She writes for Jennifer the Babysitter Fairy "...hair set her freckles off perfectly..." I'm not sure how hair can make freckles stand out, but I'm sure Mandy knows. As the series goes on, I find the fairies have more attitude, like standing up to Jack Frost and goblins, and flying right into the scene of an arguing Jack Frost to get the magic object (still in use and in Jack's hand) which is literally suicide. Do that and you'll be locked in the dungeons for 1000 years, nowadays, it's do that and you'll get your item back after a little EastEnders-worthy drama. I don't think they ever really did that in the first place, but I'm not sure. Also, in Trixie the Halloween Fairy, she needs to be reminded that she's a fairy so no one can see her so that gives the story a bit of extra excitement. In an old blog, I talked about the four-fairy series and making links between Rachel Elliot being the only author left and the fairies changing from 7 fairies a series to 4 fairies a series. For further reading, please click on the link. 'Advertisement' Every book has, like, a page at the end advertising the next series which will follow. Before, the pictures of the book covers were only in black and white and as they went on for the first few series, the black and white pictures were gathered in groups with one page for each, which doesn't happen anymore. In the middle, they wrote the titles of the fairies on, like, a scroll, and then eventually introduced the book covers. In the old series, there were also checklists saying "do you have these books?" so when you had it, you could check it off. They don't do that nowadays. There was also a list of books with some sort of code for it. The best part of that was the additional picture of the fairies of the series at the back. That was awesome —I really loved those pictures but they only did that for about 3 series. Nowadays in the advertising area, they have coloured pictures of the books at the back but I'm not entirely sure since the latest books I own are on my iPad, not paper. The inside cover before used to be a plain colour but now it's a whole collection of all the books in the franchise which I like a bit better. Did you know that Anya the Cuddly Creature Fairy's picture is replaced by Lucy the Diamond's picture? Update: I bought the paper version of Daisy the Festival Fairy, the newest version, and I was appalled to see that the big collection of fairy books is gone! On the front page is only the Rainbow Fairies then on the back page is only the Helping Fairies, the newest series. Also, the slogan for Rainbow Magic seems to be Find a Fairy with your name since it's written everywhere. It used to be Unlock the Magic Within but I don't see it anymore. 'Clothing and names' This is a big evolution for Rainbow Magic. Since style changes as we go through years, so have the fairies' style. I did mention in my "the end (again?)" blog that the designees use Next catalogues to find outfits that would appeal to 8 year olds (source: a Telegraph article) and this new method has really changed things. Before, the fairies' clothes were more fairy-like, less human. For example, Sky the Blue Fairies' curly crown and Fern the Green Fairy's leafy outfit with curly elf shoes. In the middle of the series so far, I find the outfits are more human-like, such as Zoe the Skating Fairy's and Zara the Starlight Fairy's. Nowadays, the outfits are more clothes only models would dare to wear, such as Lola the Fashion Show Fairy's and Anna the Arctic Fox Fairy's. I'm gonna quote someone who wrote on my last blog. "I miss the old illustrations and costumes worn by the fairies...instead of the new 'fashionable' clothes ie. compare the likes of Sky and Willow to Savannah and Alison...dressing a little bit 'inappropriately'" -Danielladaisyxx I sort of get what she means. 'Inappropriate' could relate to, like, the increasing amount of fairies wearing crop tops and shorts, or that they don't relate to their job. I can think of one example for that one. For example, Cherry the Cake Fairy's skirt looks like a cupcake case upside down and she has candy-stripe socks. Whereas Alison the Art Fairy looks like a hippie. Overall, I do admit that the outfits slightly relate to jobs. Tilly the Teacher Fairy looks like a teacher, Violet the Painting Fairy looks like she's about to paint and Savannah the Zebra Fairy has zebra-stripe clothes, but I do understand a bit what she means. Now for the names...the fairies nowadays have very exotic names, such as Savannah (I'm picking on you, I'm sorry Savannah) and Tilly which I think sounds like a 60's name. Zadie and Lacey. I'm not saying they're ugly names, just really interesting different names. If you have one of these names, I'm not insulting you. I wish I had a nice name. Mine is such a simple name but I don't know which way to pronounce it. But anyway, jobs are getting longer. "Story-writing". "Jewellery-making". "Star-spotter". WHERE DID ALL THESE HYPHENS COME FROM??!? I feel the title page is getting a little cramped but they're sorting it out well. The fact the authors are basing appearances and names off celebrities really does annoy me. It's a good marketing idea. Soon, Rainbow Magic will gain many Ariana Grande fans by releasing Ariana the Firefighter Fairy, also making her look exactly like her with her dark pink-red ponytail. Luna the Loom Band Fairy has also gained much more attention from modern day fans by incorporating loom band making and giving her a name from the MLP series. End And so that's the end. It was pretty long, I apologise. I hope I explained most of the changes of the franchise and its history of how things used to be. I might've gone off subject for a bit, literally mocking the present day designs, but I didn't intentionally mean to do it. I think the whole evolution has been a good thing, with the exception of the computer-drawn illustrations and whacky names. Please read the mentioned blogs if you have time and are still interested in this irrelevant stuff. Have a good day! LexsJBTalk 20:26, April 29, 2018 (UTC) (Originally written June 5th 2015, updated 23rd January 2017, updated 29th April 2018) Category:Blog posts Category:Trivia